


Appetite

by Snowfeather



Category: When Calls the Heart (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Smut, Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-08 00:08:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18884089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snowfeather/pseuds/Snowfeather
Summary: She leaned onto the desk, elbows just barely avoiding his carefully-placed paperwork. "Did youwantme?"





	Appetite

**Author's Note:**

> In case the tags didn't spell it out for you, this is smut. Please enjoy!

The clock on the wall ticked down each second with merciless precision, the only sound in the room aside from the scratch of his pen and the occasional shuffle of AJ's shoe as it slipped off the rung of her chair and was immediately returned to its place.

With Nathan out of town for the week, all the work had fallen on Bill, and Bill wasn't about to be accused by anyone, least of all the town greenhorn, of shirking responsibility. Not that Nathan would do that. He probably wouldn't.

But just in case, the town’s new Mountie would return to find that everything had been taken care of—right down to the most tedious piece of paperwork.

The room stayed silent for another ten minutes, and then AJ's shoe slipped again. Before she could lift it back into place, the clock over the mayor's office started to chime the hour; the jailhouse's little clock was a beat behind, and the two clocks clanged intermittently until there was silence again.

Bill turned over the document he was looking at, setting it on the growing pile of completed work to his right. From the stack on the left, he took another. 

AJ sighed, the sound equal parts frustration and annoyance, and he looked up, expression as nonchalant as he'd ever managed in her presence.

When he didn't speak right away, she shifted forward in her seat, her other shoe hitting the ground. "It's after seven, now," she told him, as if he hadn't just had to listen to fourteen chimes from two different clocks.

"And?"

"Does dinner mean anything to you?"

He liked this game, the vague back and forth they sometimes shared. It wasn't often in his life someone took the time to show they cared, let alone almost every day. But he didn't like to make it easy on her, and had no intention of doing so today, either. "You just don't want to eat alone," he said, raising both eyebrows before he turned his gaze back to the paperwork.

It was infinitely less interesting than AJ, but that was all right. She never gave up easily, and he was getting better at treading the line to ensure the game stopped before she did.

"If we both need to eat there's no reason not to do it together." A line she’d spoken to him before.

"Or you could go by yourself."

"What fun is that?" she asked, tipping the brim of her hat back to give him an earnest look that he couldn't help but see, even with his own eyes on a wanted poster that needed to be filed later.

"Eating doesn't have to be fun. It's a necessity."

"Aren't you hungry?"

"A little, but there's work to finish."

"You've been at it for hours. I know because I've been here, too."

The corner of his mouth quirked upward into a smirk. He tried to hide it behind a hand and a frustrated expression. "Your own doing. I'm not keeping you here against your will."

"Not this time, anyway."

"Or last time, or the time before, or last week..."

She huffed. "It wasn't  _ _that__  long ago, y'know. You even ate with me then, as I recall."

"For ten seconds," he agreed, going back to his work. He put that paper in a drawer and took the next. This would need signed and sent back. Carefully, he penned the date and signed it, his shoulders tense.

He remembered that day like it was yesterday; she’d convinced him to eat with her by some miracle, and he’d regretted giving in something like ten seconds later because he’d hardly sat down before she brought up a kiss from the year before as if it had any bearing on her current situation.

Only God knew what she was about to bring up.

Probably the last kiss, he guessed, since it hadn’t been discussed at all. It was the one he’d given her in the back of the wagon, clumsy and slow. He wouldn’t make excuses for it, he supposed, but he also didn’t know what __to__  say, either.

He folded the signed document and prepped it for mailing while he waited for AJ’s reply.

But she didn’t say anything.

In fact, she went silent for so long Bill found concentrating on an outdated telegram to be nothing short of torture and looked up. She was staring at him thoughtfully, head cocked sideways.

"Say, Bill?"

"What?"

"When I was here before—you know, both times you arrested me... Either time, I guess..."

He couldn't begin to imagine where she was going with this, but set his pen down neatly. "What about it?"

She maintained her thoughtful expression for all of five seconds before it shifted into something sly. "Did you want me?"

Through sheer force of will, he managed to hardly blink. "What do you mean?"

"You know," she said, leaning onto the desk, elbows just barely avoiding his carefully-placed paperwork. "Did you  _ _want__  me?"

Bill was nothing if not honest with his feelings, when he bothered to reveal them at all. "No," he said. "I didn't."

AJ didn't miss a beat. "You didn't think about pushin' me up against the bars for another kiss like that first one?"

"No." That was a half-lie; he'd thought about it, but at the time he'd dismissed the fantasy; it had seemed wrong, and anyway, her motives had been in question. He definitely hadn't been in the mood.

"Not even once?"

He met her gaze resolutely. "AJ..."

She leaned her cheek into the palm of her hand and smiled at him. "Bill...did you want to?"

He sighed, and she took that as her cue to keep talking.

" _ _I__  wanted you to."

"Didn't you say you were hungry?" he asked, his voice harsher than he meant for it to be. She was treading dangerously close to  _ _something__ ; he wasn't experienced enough in relationships to know exactly what, but the image that sprang to mind at her words sent a warmth flooding through his body, and deflection was the only defense he knew against it.

"Oh, I am." She watched him for another moment, and then grinned. "Just...maybe not for food."

His stupid heart roared to life louder than any motorcar. 

"For what, then?" he asked her, his voice slightly unsteady. He hated, but it was clear from AJ's expression that she was glad he'd not only asked the question, but had also betrayed his own interest in the answer.

Her reply came slow and surprisingly soft. "You," she said. "Who else?"

The words alone might not have been enough to sway him, but the way she reached over with her free hand and brushed her thumb against his, so light he wasn't quite sure he was feeling it—well, somehow the combination sent a rush of desire straight through him.

His fingers curled slightly before he reached for his completed stack of paperwork and straightened it, setting it into one of the right side drawers.

"Is that a no?" she asked. "Not even a  _ _little__  taste? Third time's the charm, you know."

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't say anything, which is as good as saying no."

"I'm thinking," he said. "And cleaning up the desk."

"I could be into that." Her voice was low, almost like she was sharing a secret with him. The knowledge that she probably  _ _was__ saying it for his ears only, and was unlikely to say it to anyone else, made his heart flutter. 

He wanted to scold it for giving him away, but it's not as if she could hear it beating.

Probably.

AJ continued on, tone shifting to casual thoughtfulness. "I don't think the chair would be very comfortable, but the desk would be all right... For the first time, I think I'd prefer to sit on the edge... There'd be room to lay back a bit. Maybe next time we could try the  _ _other__  way—"

"AJ!" His tone was sharp and exasperated, but he could feel heat under his collar. 

"I was just giving you  _ _options!"__

"I don't need help picturing it," he said. If he had five seconds of silence he could almost imagine the feel of her pressed flush against him, her hair spread out over the desk— 

He shook his head to clear it.

"So you wanna try it?" she asked, her voice eager and happy again, like she'd won.

He swallowed, mouth feeling almost dry. "Is this a serious proposal?" 

The words revealed more than he wanted them to; he'd die if he tried it only for her to tell him she'd just been kidding and hadn't meant any of it. To AJ’s credit, she hadn't been flighty at all since she'd returned to Hope Valley, but it didn't mean she wanted to commit herself to sex with __him__. In a  _ _jail__ , no less.

"Of course it is," she said, looking hurt that he hadn't trusted it in the first place. "You don't believe me?"

Well, there was the matter of choosing a jail to fool around in, but Bill felt certain that was a topic best brought up later, and with gloves on if possible. He still didn't know how the experience in prison had been for her, and doubted it had been kind. She would share if and when she was ready, and not a moment before. Just like he would tell her about his son, but only when he was ready for it.

"It's not that," he managed to say, taking the unfinished stack and putting it back into the metal organizer that sat off to the side. He reached for the stack that was on her side of the desk, between her arms. "It's just not something I take lightly."

She looked hurt again at first, for just a moment, but the expression fled as he pulled the papers away and was replaced with something earnest. He tucked the stack of papers into the organizer sideways, to keep them separated from the others.

"Me either," she told him. "But I know what I want. I've had plenty of time to think about it."

"And what exactly did you think about?" Another stack, carefully set aside. “What did you decide?”

"That I could get a fresh start anywhere in the country, or even outside of it, but I came back here." She smiled again, softly. "For you. But I think you know that."

"Of course I do," he said. "I'm not stupid."

"Could've fooled me," she said, and laughed, the sound gentler than he expected it to be.

His smirk returned as he scooped up another small stack of papers and positioned them carefully in the organizer. He'd had his doubts, of course, but she'd returned as she'd said she would, and her intentions were obvious to anyone with eyes in their head.

It was just a little hard to believe. He only had himself to thank for that; he'd never been very good at letting other people in, and that flaw had a habit of ruining relationships before they’d even started.

"I want the desk clean first," he said after a moment.

"You don't like making a mess?"

"I don't know," he answered honestly. "But I'm sure there's a difference in making a mess in general, and making a mess of official paperwork that officials of the law and government may someday have to look at."

She raised her eyebrows, obviously surprised by his willingness to talk about it, but the little grin on her face betrayed the fact that she was obviously also delighted by it. "No fluids on the paperwork, got it."

"The desk can be cleaned."

"Good," she said nonchalantly as she pushed the rest of the paperwork toward him, "it's gonna need it."

"Got it all planned out, I see." He tried to ignore the way her talking about something they hadn't even done made him feel, but it was impossible to set aside how tight his pants grew at her words, and he found himself hurrying to get the papers out of the damn way even though he wanted to drag it out just to frustrate her a little.

"I'm creative, and like I said, I've had a  _ _lot__  of time to think about it." She shrugged out of her jacket, draping it over the chair. "Want me to lock the door, or do you want the honors?"

He looked over at it, and then at the window; the curtain hid them well enough, but God forbid someone come barreling into the jailhouse looking for him while he and AJ were, uh, figuring things out. "Go ahead," he told her, and pulled the keyring out of the drawer.

She took it from him, fingers brushing against his, and then wandered slowly to the door. The catch of the lock had a ring of finality to it that made his stomach twist pleasantly. Bill had a feeling it was for his benefit, though he hardly needed that kind of encouragement. She set the keys on one of the wall hooks and adjusted the curtains before she hopped up onto his desk, her back facing him. While he opened up another drawer to put a stack of old warrants inside, she leaned over to untie first one shoe and then another, toeing them off gracelessly.

If that wasn't a silent 'hurry up' he didn't know what was; two full sweeps of miscellaneous paperwork later and the desk was clean enough, at least in the middle.

"Which side do you prefer?" he found himself asking; an idiot question, as she was already sitting on the other side.

But she jumped down and came over to his side, smiling. "I hadn't considered this side, so let's try it first."

 _ _First__ , like they'd be doing this again.

Like she'd  _ _want__  to.

He wasn't even sure he could make one time reasonably decent, let alone more than one, but if Bill was anything, he was observant. He'd heard other men talking, and if their shared tips amongst one another after a few drinks failed him, AJ was a poor liar; he'd know if he was disappointing her.

Hell, knowing her, she'd probably tell him exactly what she wanted. The thought was…surprisingly inviting.

She hopped up onto his desk and spread her knees shoulder width apart, graciously looking him in the eye instead of letting her eyes fall to the obvious bulge in his pants. "C'mere," she said, "so I can kiss you properly this time."

The second he stood, she took hold of his shirt and pulled him to her, heels pressing against the desk drawers so that she could lean up far enough to press her lips against his.

It was like the first kiss they'd shared, hard and heated. Her hands stayed in the fabric of his shirt for a few moments before they moved to his hair, nails lightly digging into the back of his neck. He hadn't forgotten the feel of her mouth, but the rest of her was newer, almost exciting. When they broke apart to breathe, he let his hands wander a little, down her side, over her hip and back again.

She laughed, air puffing lightly against his cheek before she pulled away and smiled at him, eyes bright. "You can take something off," she said, her fingers deftly untucking his shirt, "but then you have to lose something, too. So it's fair."

He wasted no time in kissing her again, sloppier this time as he tried to focus on getting the buttons of her shirt undone. Eventually he succeeded, and slid a hand in...only to feel the fabric of another shirt underneath.

AJ grinned into the kiss, ruining it pleasantly, and tried to slide his vest off of his shoulders. He hadn’t even noticed her undoing it, but let go of her so that he could shrug out of it. Before it had even hit the floor his hands were back, this time untucking her undershirt. "Unfair," he complained, but bent his head to kiss her neck.

"Fair," she argued softly, head tipping to the side even as her fingers slid up the back of his shirt to explore, "since you're wearing a vest."

He grunted out a soft sound of acknowledgement—he supposed it  _ _was__  fair after all—and followed suit, pulling up her shirt a bit to feel her skin. Her belly twitched a little when his hand trailed over it, and he smiled.

"Ticklish?" he guessed, mumbling the words against her neck.

Her answer came quickly, almost breathlessly: "No. Not right now."

"No?" He stroked over the area again, this time lower, and kissed her skin.

"It's not nice to tease a lady, Bill," she told him, her voice a playful growl as she did it right back to him, fingers stroking low on his belly.

It sent heat arcing south so swiftly he couldn't help but groan against her collarbone. If that was how it felt for her, too, he would have to remember it for later.

"It’s only teasing if there’s no followthrough,” he tried to argue.

“It’s teasing __until__  there’s followthrough.” she told him, breath jumping as his fingers stroked low under the waist of her pants.

It made him feel bold. “You don’t like being teased?” he asked as she reached for his belt. He took that as a sign to unclip her suspenders.

"Not when I'm already soaking wet," she told him, her tone so matter-of-fact it made him harder instantly. "There'll be plenty of time for teasing another day, and then you can drag it out as long as you want."

Her suspenders and his belt hit the floor at nearly the same time, and he slid his hand up her shirt to cup one of her breasts in his palm. It was warm and heavy and her nipple was already half hard. He rolled it between his thumb and forefinger and moved to kiss her properly again. She kissed back enthusiastically, fingers going to his pants.

He wasn't sure he was ready to rush to end so quickly, but AJ had his trousers half over his hips before he could so much as blink, and so he pulled back from the kiss so that he could concentrate on making things fair again. 

Half a minute later they both looked sloppy, but Bill wasn't about to deny that she looked amazing perched on the edge of his desk in her delicates, an undershirt pushed up over her breasts, and her blouse unbuttoned. If he wasn't already hard, the sight might have gotten him there in a second. She was even still wearing her hat.

"Like what you see, Bill?" she asked, and then stroked him through his underwear, making him moan under his breath. "There's just one more important piece of clothing in the way, now."

She let go of him and grabbed the waist of her own underwear, shimmying out of them before she kicked them off of a foot. He didn't see where they landed.

"Your turn," she said, voice low again.

He didn't mean to stare, but it would almost be a crime not to fully appreciate what was in front of him. Of course AJ was an attractive woman—he wasn't blind—but she had never been more attractive to him than she suddenly was, spread out in front of him  _ _for him__. 

She spoke before he could think of anything intelligent to say.

"Don't tell me I'm beautiful. I already know."

Only she could make that sound sexy. He smiled and shook his head. "If you insist, I won't." But he'd sure be thinking it.

"Good. It's cliché, and it's not right to keep a lady waiting."

"It's only been a few minutes," he told her, not sure why he was bothering to argue except that it helped him organize his thoughts.

"Oh, didn't you know?"

"Know what?" He stepped out of his own underwear, revealing himself to her. 

She stared with absolutely no shame, though her cheeks flushed a little in the low lighting. Still, she met his gaze with a confident smile and said, "For the last two hours I was sitting in that chair thinking about you moving inside me."

Bill was completely, absolutely 100% certain he'd never been harder in his entire life. And it was all AJ's doing.

He stepped closer and felt her feet hook around the back of his legs to pull him against her. The contact took his breath away.

"Two hours, huh."

"Bill, your desk is getting wet."

A surge of confidence went through him at that, and he kissed her, hard, smirking a little as he pulled away. "The desk can be cleaned," he reminded her, struck by the urge to tuck back a strand of her hair that was in her face.

He took the time to do so, and she groaned impatiently, leaning back on her elbows, legs spreading further.

Sure enough, the surface of the desk was glistening a little, and so was she. He wanted to touch her, explore every little inch with his fingers and then his mouth, but there would be time for that later. Another day, when she needed the foreplay.

"Ready?" he asked, and when she nodded and smiled, obviously pleased that he was finally getting around to it, he grabbed his dick and guided it to her opening, pressing just the tip into her as he watched her face.

Her expression was a little incredulous, perhaps wondering why he hadn’t just gotten it over with in one hard push, but the last thing he wanted to do was mess this up, and surely __hurting her__  would do just that.

But AJ seemed fine. After a moment, she tapped his ass with her heel, encouragement to keep going, and he pushed in, the movement slow and steady. The way she moaned, back arching and head tipping back, almost made him falter, but he pushed all the way in and waited, out of breath himself and overwhelmed by the way she felt around him.

"I'm fine," she said, like she knew he needed to hear it, and pushed herself up to kiss him softly on the mouth, fingers stroking his face. “Are you?”

A fully unexpected question, but he exhaled an answer in the affirmative and she kissed his cheek.

“Have at it, then,” she said, settling back on her elbows.

He pulled most of the way out and then pushed back in again, slowly to get the hang of it, to watch her face while he did it so that he could see if it was good or somehow bad or something in between. But she lightly kicked at his ass with her heel again on the fourth one and his slow thrusts grew a little faster, a little harder, and she gave up trying to stay on her elbows and just laid back, hips jerking up to meet his at the last second. A few minutes into it and the movement pushed her hat right off her head and onto the floor.

The image of her with her hair loose, mouth open slightly in a soft moan, spurred him on, and he shifted his grip on her hips and drove into her a little deeper, sweat beading on his forehead.

Her muscles clenched hard around him once, almost stuttering, and he knew that meant if he could last longer, maybe he could get her off first, but he barely had time to register the thought before he felt his own orgasm coming on.

He came a mere second after he pulled out, his release splattering into his own hand, a last-second attempt to keep it from making a bigger mess. It took him a long minute to catch his breath; his muscles were still trembling as he opened the top drawer in his desk with a clean hand to get a handkerchief to wipe it off.

AJ was up on her elbows watching him, legs still wide open. The inside of her thighs were wet, and the opening he'd been thrusting into gaped open slightly. His fingers twitched at the urge to push them inside to fill up the space he’d left.

"Do you know how?" she asked him, flushed but alert. "I'll teach you."

And she did, guiding two of his fingers to fill her and his other hand to her clit. Everything was wet and new; it almost overwhelmed him again, but she was patient and in good spirits.

"Like this," she told him, not at all embarrassed to guide his fingers pressed against her clit. "Steady and firm. You’ll know when I’m coming because my muscles will tighten against your fingers, but don't stop until I tell you to or you'll ruin it."

He tried to keep in mind the necessary pressure with his one hand and a steady tempo with the fingers moving inside her, and got the hang of it when she thrust her hips hard against his hand. After that, it was just a matter of perseverance, and he had plenty of that.

Had he been a younger man, it was possible the sight of her spread out like this in front of him, moaning his name as her insides squeezed his fingers, might have gotten him hard again. It still moved him, stirred something deep inside—not the rush of desire, but something softer, warmer.

True to his word, he didn't stop stroking her until well after she finished, when she pushed his hands away and laughed a little, sitting up.

She looked a little starry-eyed, exactly the way he felt, and he couldn’t help but kiss her again. She kissed him back, smiling into the kiss. “I knew you had __that__  in you, too,” she said, and reached into the drawer he'd taken his hankie out of to pull out a clean one for herself.

“You’re a surprisingly good teacher,” he admitted, watching as she hopped off the desk and mopped herself up.

“Well, it __was__  for my benefit, but thank you. You learn quickly.”

“That was for my benefit, too,” he found himself saying; it sounded dumb to him when it hit the air, but it made AJ’s cheeks turn pink again with obvious delight.

She turned the now-folded hankie to a dry side and leaned over the desk to wipe it up.

Bill leaned over to pick up his underwear off the ground and pulled them up. "I'll take care of that later.”

"You're sure?"

"Yep."

“Now __that’s__  teamwork.” She stood up on her toes to press a kiss to his cheek and then, humming a little to herself, moved over to where their clothes had landed on the floor. "Ready to get something to eat, now?" she asked, tossing him a wink and his pants. 

He smiled and caught his pants, holding out her underwear to her. "Sure."

She grinned, pulling on her underthings and then grabbing her trousers from the floor. “Eating together? After all this? You’re spoiling me, Bill.”

“I’d hardly call it that.” He hadn’t even called it a date, though in his own mind, that’s exactly what it was.

They were dressed in record time and looked no different than they had an hour ago. Except for one thing.

“Ready?” AJ asked, moving toward the door to unlock it.

He leaned down to scoop her hat up off the floor, and when he met her at the door he settled it neatly on her head. “Yep.”

She tipped her head back and grinned up at him. “Good,” she said, handing him the keys as she pulled open the door. “I’d say you’ve worked up quite an appetite this evening.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please consider leaving a comment if you enjoyed it. ;)


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